This invention relates generally to disposable absorbent articles for persons, children or adults, and more specifically to disposable protective underwear that can be readily pulled on and off the body, like underwear, and which provides improved absorbent functionality to prevent the soiling of outer garments by urine and/or feces.
As populations continue to increase in longevity, incontinence, a problem of age presents a need for fluid control in undergarments. In particular, adult incontinence represents a transition from underwear to the use of some type of absorbent article to be added to the underwear or to completely replace it. For moderate-to-heavy incontinence needs a variety of disposable diaper designs are commercially available. Never the less certain deficiencies have been recognized in diapers that are currently found in the market place. For example, many of them, particularly high capacity designs, are thick and bulky, thus rendering concealment difficult. Moreover many of such prior art absorbent articles are complex in construction and are somewhat difficult to put on, e.g., require the use of elastic securement tabs. xe2x80x9cSee for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,520,673 (Yarbrough et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,876,390 (Hall et al.), U.S. Pat. 5,817,086 (Kling), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,948 (Roe et al.), all of which disclose absorbent articles which may be of various shapes, such as rectangular, trapezoidal, T-shaped, I-shaped, hour-glass shaped, but which include various elastic components and/or other structural features, such as adhesive mounting tabs.xe2x80x9d
A recent development in the field is the so-called disposable training pants for children and disposable pants, shorts-type diapers, underwear or undergarments for adults. Such devices are constructed so that they can be easily pulled onto the wearer in a similar manner to the manner of donning briefs or shorts. xe2x80x9cExamples of such easy-to-pull on devices are shown in the following U.S. Pat. No. 5,858,013 (Kling); U.S. Pat. No. 5,769,838 (Buell et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,749,865 (Yamamoto et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,746,731 (Hisada); U.S. Pat. No. 5,735,839 (Kawaguchi et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,685,874 (Buell et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,543 (Nomura et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,876,392 (Hisada); U.S. Pat. No. 5,569,234 (Buell et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,496,429 (Hasse et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,464,401 (Hasse et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,246,433 (Hasse et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,236,430 (Bridges); U.S. Pat. No. 5,188,627 (Igaue et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,940,464 (Van Gompel et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,938,753 (Van Gompel et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,163,932 (Nomura et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,362 (Heran et al.); and U.S. Pat. No. 4,641,381 (Heran et al.).xe2x80x9d In addition there are some disposable absorbent pants or underwear available commercially from Kimberly Clark Company and Toyoeizai. All of the foregoing prior art devices make use of elasticized portions, typically about each leg and the waist. The leg elastic portions are provided to enable the device to closely conform to the wearer""s anatomy and to deter the egress of fluids from the leg openings.
While the aforementioned prior art disposable protective undergarments are generally suitable for their intended purposes, they never the less leave something to be desired from the standpoint of resistance to leakage of fluid therefrom via gaps in their construction. Moreover, many prior art disposable protective undergarments are relatively complex in construction and difficult to manufacture.
Accordingly, it is a general object of this invention to provide protective underwear that addresses the needs of the prior art.
It is another object of this invention to provide protective underwear that can be readily pulled on or off;
It is another object of this invention to provide protective underwear that provides improved absorbent functionality and resistance to leakage;
It is another object of this invention to provide protective, leakage-resistant underwear which is disposable;
It is still another object of this invention to provide protective underwear that is readily concealable under clothing, provides a flexible, cloth-like feel, is resistant to leakage and is disposable when no longer needed.
It is still another object of this invention to provide protective underwear that can be manufactured efficiently.
A protective, e.g., disposable, underwear arranged to be worn by a person to trap and collect loose or liquid waste products of the person. The underwear is in the form of a pants-shaped chassis having a waist portion, a crotch portion and a pair of leg openings disposed on opposite sides of the chassis. The crotch portion is located between the leg openings and has a front section and a rear section. The waist portion has a front section and a rear section joined together at the sides of the chassis. The front and rear sections of the crotch portion merge together at the bottom of the chassis and are located opposite to the waist portion. Each of the leg openings has an arcuate upper section and an arcuate lower section.
The chassis comprises a hydrophobic or hydrophillic, e.g., a spunbond/meltblown/spunbond, non-woven material. The underwear also includes an insert comprising an insert sheet, a liquid permeable, e.g., a spunbond polypropylene, non-woven material, a liquid absorbent core, e.g., pulp and superabsorbent particulates disposed between a fluid acquisition layer and the liquid impermeable film, e.g., polyethylene film, and the heretofore mentioned fluid acquisition layer, e.g., a thru-air-bonded bicomponent fiber with a fast finish surfactant, between the core and the liquid permeable non-woven material insert sheet. The fluid acquisition layer may be eliminated, if desired. The insert also includes a liquid impermeable film, e.g., polyethylene film, located between the core and the chassis.
The waist portion of the chassis including plural transversely oriented elastic threads extending parallel to one another. These plural transversely oriented elastic threads encompass a substantial portion of the chassis from the waist portion to a point adjacent the crotch portion. The chassis also includes a pair of longitudinally oriented elastic threads intersecting a least one of the transversely oriented elastic threads of the front section of the waist portion and intersecting at least one of the transversely oriented elastic threads of the rear section of the waist portion to form an enclosed compartment for the liquid absorbent core to prevent the egress of liquid therefrom.
The upper section of each of the leg openings is located adjacent the waist portion and is elasticized by at least one arcuate elastic thread. Portions of the longitudinally oriented elastic threads are located very close to the lower sections of the leg openings to elasticize the lower sections of the leg openings, whereupon the leg openings closely conform about the leg of the person.